Navies finally may be attracting long-overdue attention from the Civil War history community. In this issue, we present some cases in point in an expanded section made possible through a generous gift from the Otto Haas Charitable Trust and Barbara and Bob Hanrahan, frequent donors in support of Naval History's parent organization, the U.S. Naval Institute. Bob is an avid Civil War enthusiast from Philadelphia.
We knew something was afoot when we heard the topic of the 22nd annual Civil War Institute—from 27 June to 3 July at Pennsylvania's Gettysburg College—is "Uncle Sam's Web Feet: The Navies." One of the principal lecturers will be Harold Holzer, a long-time friend who happens to be speaking on Civil War naval art, the subject of his article that leads this issue. Harold is known best for his work on President Abraham Lincoln, but as vice president of communications and marketing for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he also knows whence he speaks about fine art, especially when it relates to the Civil War.
We were told recently that historian James McPherson, author of many Civil War books, notably the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom, is working on a new book about the war's navies. We had been planning to interview him for years, and this seemed the perfect time. His book on the Civil War navies, he says, probably will focus on the several themes he addresses here.
Two pieces of Civil War serendipity also fell our way. The first emerged from Naval Institute Press Acquisitions Editor Tom Cutler, a retired naval officer and staunch keeper of the naval historical flame. Tom is finishing A Sailor's History of the U.S. Navy, and one chapter deals with conditions inside the Monitor during her battle with the Virginia in the 1862 Battle of Hampton Roads. In keeping with the quality of his previous works, Tom sustains a knack for taking the reader to the scene he describes in this vivid account. Then came National Geographic Magazine cartographer Bob Pratt, seeking a partner to help market his masterfully detailed map of the Hampton Roads duel.
Featured as well in our Civil War focus are three experts in their fields. Maryland state underwater archaeologist Bruce Thompson takes us to the depths of the Chesapeake Bay and the wreck of a Confederate schooner, captured by a Union gunboat in July 1861 and sunk at anchor four days later. Ordnance aficionado Eugene Canfield presents a surprising analysis of the guns carried by two of the war's most famous ships, the Alabama and the Kearsarge. And Edward Stokes Miller tells us how the Passaic survived the storm that sank her sister ship, the Monitor.
Rounding out this issue, we proudly present former Chief of Naval Operations retired Admiral James Holloway III and his dramatic account of Operation Lion's Den off Haiphong during the Vietnam War. In what has been understated as "one dicey night," then-Vice Admiral Holloway was commander of the Seventh Fleet.
On a final note, from the Naval Institute photo archive comes word that the archivists are scanning 1,000 images a month onto the photo pages of the U.S. Naval Institute Web site, including classic Navy aircraft and a special collection of photos from the D-Day landings at Normandy. Check them out!
—Fred L. Schultz, Editor-in-Chief